Chapter Text
If ever a more garish sight existed it was certainly not going to speak up today.
The entire first floor of the hotel had been choked with ribbon, banners, balloons, flower arrangements, garland, and several handmade decorations that no one could really identify but Charlie had made them so they stayed. They blended in well with the rest of the chaotic pieces so at least no one had to focus on them for too long.
Every last bit had taken two days to get up or 'get right'.
When it came for the day all of the princess' hard work to be appropriate Charlie had to be brought to another room so that her sobs weren't completely deafening. They were happy sobs, but the theatrical woman couldn't just sniffle and wipe at her eyes like anyone else. Snot, obnoxious snorts to reel the snot in, and disturbing faces involving a wobbling chin, eyes wide as they could go, and varying kinds of whimpering were all part of her repertoire.
Vaggie had gone with her and though she tried to mask them there was no hiding the mist clouding her own eye.
Today was an important day. Today was the day Angel Dust was being accepted into Heaven and Redeemed.
After the battle with Adam, Sera had been, with great hesitation, willing to admit mistakes had been made and certain rules needed to change. She revealed that Sir Pentious had not been Erased and resided in Heaven and added that if any more souls were to ascend there needed to be at least the foundation of a plan.
For six months she and Charlie met at the Heaven Embassy on a weekly basis to discuss at length just how the relationship between the two realms would operate from then on. Lucifer had backed out of involvement in the politics but would come around now and again to listen to his daughter prattle on about their progress thus far.
At month three Angel was brought to the meeting room, the spider looking ready to cut and run at the sight of the towering seraphim.
Suddenly aware of himself he had patted all along his body to ensure anything vital was properly covered, that his skirt was not riding up, and he even pressed down his prized fluff to close another button over his chest to become more presentable.
Angel, as the first true patron of the hotel, would be moving to Heaven if he worked just a bit longer on his path. The idea had excited him and scared him at the same time. After all, he had been in Hell more than 100 years and for at least 70 of those spent being a porn actor and a hooker.
That wasn't even touching his crippling drug addiction and everything else that had damned his soul to begin with. To just go to Heaven seemed a big jump. Shouldn't there be a place like purgatory where he could play the waiting game? Surely you couldn't just jump from eternal damnation to eternal salvation in a single move.
Sera explained with a tone used more for a professor droning on through a lesson there was no purgatory, there was no waiting room or transitional plane. He'd step through a portal just like Charlie and Vaggie had the day of their ill-fated meeting and he'd be in Heaven.
That had bothered Angel and after that anxiety-ridden afternoon he had grilled the princess about it over and over with endless questions that mainly went without a clear answer. He did not know what to expect and the unknown was always a frightening creature. Angel had lived his life knowing what to expect because his life had not changed in all his years here. The only new event was the hotel and that battle.
And, well, a someone. A curmudgeonly cat who was an alcoholic yet manned the bar of the hotel and always smelled like flat beer and bar peanuts. He was Angel's favorite person, something he wouldn't admit to if you threatened him.
For those six months Angel did everything he could think of while juggling his job and its plethora of vices. Sera had assured him what Valentino had him do would not be held against him. His soul was going to be freed and everything tied to the moth would be washed away like dried mud.
That promise alone had him grinning and bearing it so well it actually angered his pimp but even the beatings he took couldn't stop his daydreams of being free and how giddy it made him.
Now the day was here and Angel was standing in the lobby of the hotel, raking his bottom lip between his teeth. His lower hands were wringing and upper ones constantly smoothing his blazer. He'd gotten new clothes just for this--a dusty pink blazer with long sleeves so he could forego his gloves and white slacks. Even his boots were new and he had applied only minimal makeup. No one had mentioned just what the standing of gay men in Heaven was nevermind one who enjoyed certain feminine accents to his person.
This was all he could take with him. No suitcase, no overnight bag, just him.
With Charlie and Vaggie removed from the scene it left only Husk and Niffty. Alastor was, to no one's surprise, entirely absent. He hadn't paid much mind to the goings on and his only remark was that the hotel would certainly benefit from the silence. The unspoken truth was that he wanted to be nowhere near anything holy when the time came.
Niffty had been running circles around Angel's feet to keep him tidy and to pick up on any last moment alterations. The spider had a sneaking suspicion she wanted to be as close as possible to look through the portal if even just for a split second. Charlie had let slip how pristine the path to the pearly gates had been and, well, the little lady was obsessed.
Husk was leaning against the couch in the new parlor, larger and more cozy than the last, bottle in hand but never making it to his lips. The cap hadn't even been removed. Every time Angel looked his way the cat would bob his head as if to say 'you'll be fine.'
But he wasn't. He hadn't slept, he hadn't eaten, he had barely had anything to drink. All night had been spiraling anxiety, crying, and hugging Fat Nuggets who was now under the care of Husk. Angel hadn't even asked about bringing the pig because he was a hellborn creature. It was insane enough he was being let in.
The grandfather clock in the parlor chimed twelve. Its brass clangs echoed ominously.
"Is today not it?" Angel asked rhetorically and now felt nausea wash over him. Maybe he'd remembered the day wrong. Maybe it wasn't happening? What if they changed their minds? If they had seen what Val kept him overnight for three nights ago doing...
A blast of wind that sent Niffty skittering into a wall (she was fine, giving her signature thumbs up) whipped through the parlor, giving off the scent of warm honey and cream, and suddenly a spiral of clouds two heads taller than the spider churned and widened. In the center of the halo of clouds was the portal. It was so bright it hurt Angel's eyes and he wished he'd thought of sunglasses. His pink cat eye ones were on his night stand.
Distant music played from the other side and he could hear someone humming along in a high tenor voice.
This was it. This was Heaven. He was going to Heaven. Him, Angel Dust. The man who almost all of Hell had seen naked, who had more dicks in him than there were probably stars in the sky, the addict who couldn't remember certain lengths of time due to being high out of his mind. The addict that had taken any drug offered to forget other lengths of time.
He was going to Heaven.
Angel looked helplessly back at Husk for the final time. The cat gave another nod his head and gave a smile. There was something that felt wrong about leaving now. Maybe if he stayed one more minute. Just one. Or two.
With a shove from behind Angel stepped through the portal and in to heaven.
And ten months later he came crashing back down to Hell in the front courtyard of the hotel.